Day 137

Since I’m still not feeling that hot today, I decided to work on a project which is ongoing. I’m using a photo which I made several weeks ago, but I hadn’t done anything with.

Today’s photo was taken with a tripod mounted Nikon D700, with a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens. The photo was made from a fair distance from the lighthouse, because I felt that the grasses in the foreground really added to the image. Since so many lighthouse pictures tend to isolate the subject, I decided I wanted to include a “sense of place” in this image. The RAW image was imported into Adobe Lightroom for processing.

When I made this picture I felt that I might want to make a Black and White photo from it. After looking at the file today, I decided to process it as an HDR image. Since I didn’t have a series of captures for the HDR conversion, I decided to do a single- shot HDR image. I processed the file 3 times at 3 different exposure values and then exported those images to Photomatix for processing. While I still have very limited experience with HDR, I’m learning more about it and I look forward to working more with this technique.

Day 136

I did take a picture today, but I’m not really going to have a chance to say much about it. Work was pretty busy and time just got away from me. Hopefully back to normal tomorrow.

Day 135

Now that cooler temperatures are here, it seems like illnesses quicly follow. I was feeling a little under the weather today, so I didn’t get a chance to do any real shooting. In the interests of keeping this project going, I decided to use a picture from my most recent trip to Maine.

This picture was taken with my Nikon D700, with a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens. I shot with the lens wide open to take advantage of the narrow depth of field this provides. This allows the background to go out of focus and eliminate distractions. The file was imported into Adobe Lightroom for conversion to jpeg for posting here.

This subject drew my attention because I felt that this old hydrant was so out of place here. This photo was taken in the middle of Acadia National Park, which didn’t really seem to be a place where one would find a scene like this. I guess you can never tell where photo opportunities will present themselves.

Day 134

I thought that I would try to find something seasonal today to use as my photo subject. Initially I wasn’t having much luck looking around the house. I finally decided that a picture with this autumn themed candle holder might be interesting.

This shot was made with my Nikon D700, with a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens. Aside from candlelight, there wasn’t any extra lighting used. Mounting the camera on a tripod allowed me to use a long shutter speed and still keep the image sharp. I was careful to line up the flame behind the corner of the candleholder, so I avoided having the bright candle flame being completely overexposed. After shooting the picture, I imported the RAW files into Adobe Lightroom for editing. I didn’t crop the frame at all, but I did adjust the contrast a little. The orange tint to the image is a result of the candlelight, and I decided not to attempt to correct it.

Getting detail in the metal candleholder proved to be a little difficult. I was trying to prevent the flame from being completely overexposed, which meant that the leaves of the candleholder were very dark. Using Nik Software’s Viveza plugin allowed me to slightly brighten the leaves without having to do any masking in Photoshop. This gave me the final image I was looking for, which seems to have a nice warm autumn feel to it.

Day 133

I have had the idea of doing a picture like this for a little while now. I knew that the lighting was going to be a challenge, so I waited for a day where I would have some time to devote to it. Today turned out to be that day, but things didn’t quite turn out as I expected.

Today’s photo was taken with the Nikon D700, with a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8mm VR lens. I used a large softbox to the left of the camera, and a large reflector to the right for some fill light. I didn’t worry about a background light, as I knew the background wasn’t going to be visible in the final image. The picture was finished in Adobe Photoshop CS4, where I applied the vignette effect which emphasized Seamus’ face.

I had intended to get this vignette effect using lighting rather than digital means. I attempted to use both studio lights and then a Nikon SB-900 flash, with various types of covers, snoots and grids, to light only the face of Seamus. In the end I wasn’t able to get the effect I wanted though. Usually the light on Seamus’ face was so harsh that the shadows were very severe. I’ll need to do more experimenting and research to see how this type of effect can be obtained by lighting control. For now though, I am content with the final result, even if I didn’t get there in the way I intended.